The Evolution of Korean Bathroom Culture

I came to Korea in 1997. Before that I had lived in places like Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somalia and even Yemen. One thing I was used to were toilets of all kinds (think pits, pots, piles, and poop) but nothing prepared me for the bathrooms in Korea! From such shiny, sterile buildings I expected more but the bathroom experience here was its own kind of adventure with a whole set of quirks that were, well, unforgettable.

There is nothing more that I girl wants than to come out of a stall and find a man whizzing away at the urinal, completely unfazed by her presence. For a westerner, this was bizarre, but what can you do when there is only one bathroom! Share. And accept that communal takes on a whole new meaning.

While separate restrooms are more common now, those early coed encounters cannot be flushed away. And, from what my male friends tell me, the cleaning ladies would come in without any warning and mop away. Yikes! They also used cheap fuel-based cleaners, so the whole restroom smelled like chemicals—which was fun, because back then people smoked in the toilets! Kaboom! Also, the bathroom was the only place a girl could smoke without being seen as improper (or even fined), so you can imagine the mix of fumes.

Lines? Korean women did not line up for the toilet so when a door opened it was like a Black Friday shopping stampede. And when a girl gotta pee, a girl gotta pee like now!

Or you would just stand in front of the stall that you expected to be free, knock madly on the door (no knock back? Cool, it’s empty) and then rush in before the little elderly lady who already had her pants down and her elbows out could scoot in! Nowadays, the bathrooms have lights: green go! red no!

But these things weren’t the only surprise. Toilet paper? Nope, just empty dispensers hanging there, almost laughing at you for not packing your own.

Perhaps the biggest shock to my bowels was the infamous garbage can next to the toilet. Why, you ask? That’s where people would throw their used toilet paper, as flushing clogged the pipes. Number 1 and number 2 in full view, made worse by the smell, the bacteria and the ugh ‘brownness’ of it all. And right there, at eye-level if you were squatting! I hated going in with my kids because kids….well, they touch everything…say no more. And this wasn’t just a public restroom problem either—this was normal in homes too!

Ever wonder why there are signs in Korean restrooms now that say “This is a used-toilet-paper-free bathroom”? Someone in the ministry of sanitation and health must have figured out that clogged toilets are better than putrid TP-bins! Over time, flushing your paper has become more common, but those bins still linger in some older bathrooms and some people still haven’t gotten with the times and used paper will be stuffed into the female sanitation bins.

One thing that Korea has done super well is educating people about not throwing diapers or wet wipes into the toilet as they clog worse than cement!

Another classic: public restrooms often had open windows even in winter, and hot water? Rarely. I can’t count how many times I braced myself for an icy handwashing experience. And then there was the soap problem—if soap was provided at all, it was often a bar that had been sitting there forever. But guess what? It didn’t really matter, because no one washed their hands anyway!

Thankfully, bathroom culture in Korea has evolved, and you can now expect a much more comfortable experience. One of my favorite upgrades is the bidet—Koreans have really mastered these. Public restrooms have also come a long way, with more modern facilities that include etiquette bells to mask any embarrassing noises. Some restrooms even have signs advising people to go “Big Job” (number two) at home—yes, really!

One of the best things about using the restroom in Korea today is how easy it is to find a free W.C. Whether you’re at a convenience store, subway station, or cafe, there’s always a bathroom nearby. While some places might reserve restrooms for paying customers, you can easily ask and often get access. Public restrooms are plentiful and generally well-maintained, making it a far cry from the coed, tissue-less, cold-water experiences of the past. But note that only when there is a virus going around do people actually wash their hands. MERS, SARS, COVID…I have seen it all. So pack your sanitizer if you are a germ freak.

From sharing space with strangers at the urinal to carrying my own toilet paper and dealing with poop paper bins, my early bathroom experiences in Korea were something else. Today, it’s a whole different world—modern, convenient, and equipped with the latest in bidet technology. But as much as things have improved, I’ll never forget the quirky culture shocks that made my first trips to the restroom so memorable.

So next time you find yourself in a Korean restroom, just be thankful you’re not carrying around your own tissue or dodging poop bins. Trust me, it’s come a long way.